City in the Champs League

[City1974]

We have simply been poor in the Champions League and at present the team is not good enough to win it, but we should have been able, at a minimum, to have reached the first knockout phase each year.

The team and ourselves, as yet, have not been able to produce a memorable performance against a Top European side and create a night to remember to add to the clubs history. Hopefully we can do that at home to Bayern, if we can first dispatch CSKA Moscow at home next and leave something on the Bayern game.

 

[Marvin]

No need to look for excuses. It's down to us. In an competition the established teams get certain advantage and we overcame these in the Premiership, up to all at MCFC to do the same in this competition

 

[supercity88]

The simple fact is we aren't good enough at home. We haven't made the most of our home ties and the stadium is generally less than enthusiastic for home CL games so can't really blame the fans. If we treated the CL as the be all or end all and really made a racket it would be more intimidating for away teams. You talk about going to the Camp Nou, Bernabeu or to Munich or Napoli or Rome - there's a level of intimidation there. With City there's nothing in Europe despite our home form being so good in the league. In tough games we've just not won enough at home and in terms of performances we've generally been better in the away games.

We've had it tough and we've suffered from nerves and "feeling" our way into the competition. Last season aside from the Bayern game we did everything right. We won all three away games and won the two home games we should. This season we were unfortunate to lose the first game based on how many minutes were played, we were poor against Roma when they were easily beatable and then let two goals slip in Moscow. I do think that we will still qualify because of "luck of the draw" (I know it's odd saying that about City and the CL). What I mean by that is with Bayern still needing points to win the group, Roma travel there and will likely lose again. We then have to beat CSKA and at home should learn from our away errors and do that. We then play a Bayern side already through whilst Roma play CSKA. There's nothing to say we can't beat Bayern if we get tactics right, they won't be concerned with us if they are already through - there are more important games for them to concentrate on. We might not even have to beat Roma in Rome, but we should be looking to beat them anyway. We are better than they are and it is time we showed that.

Looking around the groups in Europe many are tight. A lot more so than was the case in previous seasons where one team seemed to run away with it. Bayern, Real and Barca are still a long way ahead but we are closer to their level than the level we seem to be displaying in Europe.

 

[whp.blue]

It may not be very palitable but for me there are just a cuople of reasons why we fail in this competion every year

1 Our ball retention is not good enough we give the opposition the ball back way too easily and way too quickly just look at the amount of times Milner messed up simple passes the other night we should keep the ball better and make the opposition work much much harder to get it back.

2 And this is the biggy for me we just can't afford to play Yaya in European games as he empties the midfield and that is the area that all European teams strengthen as they try not to loose games, draws away in Europe are not that bad. We need a true box to box midfielder and that just isn't Yaya. The rags had a similar problem with Kuntana he was totally infective in European games but too big a player to leave out they never resolved the problem until he retired.

 

[afro2007]

before we get an excellent performance from the player then we need to stop pampering them,i believe is high time we let them understand how important the CL is to us, i wanna see my club win against the big teams and also get recognized by other teams in Europe.i have been saying this for the three years and u guys never supported me for been honest about the players or the team now we all see it clear how pathetic they are in the CL.drawing to roma at home was awful.

 

[Silva_Spell]

Ball retention is a problem in the CL and the biggest culprit is Dzeko. 2 out of 3 potentially dangerous moves break down with him. He is not on the same wavelength as the others and he doesn't have the technique of the others.

I don't think we should ever be playing 2 upfront in the CL. At all. We shouldn't be thinking 'we can get away with it against Moscow et al'. That might be true but we should be getting used to and improving our play with 1 up top against these teams.
Playing 2 up most of the time and then expecting us to play at our best against the top teams having barely ever played with 1 up is moronic.

Next game should be:
----Nasri---Aguero---Silva
----------Yaya------Fern
-------------Fernando

Tough away games you'd have to think about dropping Yaya, moving Silva/Nasri in field and playing Navas/Milner.

 

[kp789]

home wins - 4 out of 11

That's where the damage is done! Win % at home of just over 36!

That makes for painful reading.

 

[city2]

Simple answer is we are not good enough it's like we haven't learnt anything after 4 years, watching bayern and Madrid the other night we are nowhere near them, we won't win this competition for at least another 5 years in my opinion.

 

[onceabluealways]

I think the lack of a manager who doesn't read what is happening in the games and react quickly.

To many games we have started to get overun in midfield yet both managers reaction is to move Yaya further up the pitch so when he doesn't contribute it isn't noticed as much.

I think another poster said similar things - we won't get far whilst we let Yaya stroll around in midfield and let hese teams dominate possesion against us.

We also seem to get very nervous in Europe, some of the panic play on Tuesday was attrocious, players giving it away who would normally be much more composed on the ball.

 

[kenzie115]

3 clean sheets out of 23 is shocking. The primary aim of a European away tie, especially in the group, should be to not concede.